March 30
Daily Gleanings of the Saintly LifeSaturday after Seragesima Sunday
He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls. Proverbs 25:28.
PRESERVE rule. Rule, regularity, is the sure guard of the powers of holy discipline. Regulate your time, kind of work, times of prayer, times of rest, if possible times of silence, and of speech, and of reading, whether it be serious or lighter study. Keep this rule as a law of conscience. Rule is the enclosure of the sanctuary, hedging in a holy life and strengthening it against the approach of evil. Rule is the watchman, constantly calling you, warning you, bidding you be on your guard, bidding you renew your strength, recalling you when you go astray, nerving you when growing weak, and saving you when ready to give way. One chief strength against temptation lies in keeping far away from the presence of it, or flying if it approach us. Resist the first appearances of temptation.
O utter but the Name of God Down in your heart of hearts, And see how from the world at once All tempting light departs!
We are strong against beginnings, weak against their onward course. It is with temptation as with the gushing out of waters. The first bubbling up from the soil of the infant stream scarcely turns either way; it may be directed at our will. Let it flow on awhile and the stream has taken its settled course; the current is sweeping rapidly on, overbearing all resistance in its path. "We are bound," says a holy man, "to lead a life of toil, inasmuch as we are the offspring of our dear Lord's labours and death."